Right around this time of year, the first big wave of speckled trout seeking to escape the chilling shallow flats, floods into gulf coast tidal creeks. Some have ...more learned to predict pretty accurately this influx of hungry fish — and among this group are Gainesville anglers, Keith Chapman and Don House. Chapman and House were in a creek near the mouth of the Suwannee River’s East Pass Saturday morning, and it didn’t take long for the men to see that their timing was right. They twitched Bomber 14A jerkbaits over sandy spots in the current to catch and release “around 100 trout”… unable to give a precise count, having lost track by mid-morning.
A couple of large flounder, a 15-inch snook, and three big redfish rounded out the stellar fishing day.
Ed Burgess, too, enjoyed the outstanding Suwannee fishing. Monday morning, the Middleburg resident fished the backwater creeks and canals between West Pass and Salt Creek. Live shrimp had been unavailable that day, so Burgess cut strips from small yellowtail he was able to catch. Fished on the bottom in a deeper hole, the cut bait drew bites from redfish measuring 27 and 24 inches — and trout of 19 and 27-inches. Fishing out of Suwannee last Thursday, Lynn Baxley of Hawthorne whipped twin 26-inch reds on back-to-back casts. The fine brace of reds took large live shrimp fished on the bottom in Bumblebee Creek.
While visiting friends at Suwannee Sunday, Mike Streicher of Gainesville was treated to a great day of fishing. After netting mud minnows for bait, he cast them into rocky-bottomed areas in a deeper creek. The lively baits produced several nice trout and reds, topped by a 26.5-inch beauty. The fall mackerel run in our nearest gulf waters has to be nearly finished by now, but Robert and Jennifer Hart of Alachua proved that the razor-toothed speedsters were still around off Steinhatchee Saturday. Trolling Drone Spoons in 70-degree water 12-feet deep, they caught six Spanish in forty minutes. The largest two macks were each better than 5 pounds.
And the Harts’ luck with Spanish mackerel wasn’t an isolated happening. Great near-shore catches were common at Steinhatchee and Keaton Beach last weekend, with trout and mackerel the primary species seen. Richard McDavid of Sea Hag Marina was catching Spanish in waist-deep water Sunday when he saw another fish chasing bait at the surface.
The feeding fish was within casting range, so McDavid cranked in his jig fast to make the cast. As he pulled his lure from the water, he saw another mack chasing it — but this was a fish more than three feet long … apparently a kingfish feeding in the clear shallows along with its smaller cousins. Last weekend was one for great trout catches at Steinhatchee. Both speckled and sand trout were caught in the river near channel marker 18 by anglers casting and trolling jigs and slow-sinking Mirrolures.
And Carl Wheeler of Gray, Georgia took a giant 30-inch trout Monday near Keaton Beach. McDavid summed last weekend’s fast Steinhatchee action up by declaring, “The inshore action was just ridiculous”.
